I Shall Lift Up My Eyes

     Life is filled with good times and times of trouble.  Quite often, when something was getting me down, my mother took time to talk with me while she was cooking, and she patiently listened as I bemoaned some problem during my high school years.  One of her remedies for difficulties in life was the Psalms.  She encouraged me through the years to read the Psalms to find comfort and assurance there.  As a result, I often went into my room to read and pray the Psalms.  This never failed to bring me peace of mind.
     One of my favorite Psalms is 121.  It is short but a very powerful assurance of God's abiding love and presence:  "I lift up my eyes to the hills from where does my help come?  My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.  He will not let your foot be moved; He who keeps you will not slumber.  Behold He who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.  The Lord is your keeper;  the Lord is your shade on your right hand.  The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night.  The Lord will keep you from all evil; He will keep your life.  The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forevermore."
     The Psalm is comprised of eight short verses of powerful truth about our God.  Looking at verse 1, it becomes clear to us that God is our help.  After all, He is the Creator of heaven and earth.  Can anything be too difficult for Him?  Why is it that we try everything else under the sun before we turn to God in prayer?  I think it goes back to our old flesh that tells us we have to be in control.  However, God should always be the first One we run to when our lives are in turmoil or even at times of great joy!
     God will also not allow our foot to be moved.  In other words, He gives us the ability to stand in the face of trials.  We don't have to worry about a slippery relationship with God.  He is our Rock and a mighty fortress for us. In fact, God never slumbers.  Unlike real life body guards who can fall asleep on the job, God is watching over us 24/7.  This should give our hearts security.  Knowing He is awake, allows us to sleep well at night and to know that He is with us always guarding His own.
     Another comfort comes in verse 5 where it is stated that God is our keeper.  Just as our shadow is always with us everywhere we go, so our Lord is always with us.  This is verified by the writer of Deuteronomy 6  who tells us that God will never leave us nor forsake us.  This allows us to be strong and bold in Christ on a day to day basis.  Why should I fear when I know that nothing will happen to me today that has not already passed through the hands of my heavenly Father who loves me?
     Verses 7 and 8 conclude this Psalm with a promise of deliverance from evil.  Our lives are held in God's Hands.  He knows our beginning and end for all our days are appointed by Him (Psalm 139:16).  He keeps us in all our goings and comings.  Do we not find comfort in knowing that?
     Now, someone could read this Psalm and say that this appears to promise complete protection from all the bad things that can cross our paths in life.  However, this Psalm does not exempt us from death, sickness, tribulation any more than it keeps us from joy, blessings and peace.  This Psalm, instead, expresses the confidence we have in knowing that God is there walking with us every step
through both the happy moments as well as the sad ones.  He has created us for His glory and desires for us to enjoy Him forever.  Therefore, we can face anything as we walk through this world knowing He is sovereign over all things.  We do not need to worry, fear or tremble for we serve a risen Savior who will come again to rule and reign.  As His children, let us lift up our eyes today for our God can be trusted to do all He says He will do.  Selah!


Photograph courtesy of Aaron Thayer taken at the Naples, FL Botanical Gardens

My Big Black Thumb

 

 I love to have beautiful plants around my home, but I have one problem.  I have a big black thumb when it comes to growing plants.  If something could grow in a crawl space with little water, chances are good it would survive my care.  It isn't that I do not water my plants or give them plant food.  I do not know what it is, but most plants I purchase or are given die within a month.  So, when I go plant shopping, I look for hearty, Florida weather resistant plants to put in my gardens.  Thus far this year, they are doing well.  The key, I am told, is keeping them watered and fed until their root system gets established once they are placed in the ground.  In fact, this is also important to the Christian's life.  If we do not have deep roots,  our growth is stunted not unlike the plants.
     As I was reading in Isaiah yesterday, I came across a verse that made me think about the importance of a strong root system.  In speaking to the King Hezekiah, Isaiah foretold the defeat of Sennacherib and the Assyrians and the growth of the remnant of faithful believers in Judah.  Chapter 37 verse 31 and 32 read:  "And the surviving remnant of the house of Judah shall again take root downward and bear fruit upward.  For out of Jerusalem shall go a remnant, and out of Mount Zion a band of survivors.  The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this."  I loved the imagery in verse 31 of the roots going downward and the fruit coming upward.  This is what we are meant to do.  Those whom the Lord calls to salvation are like green plants whose roots need to be established.  God is the ultimate in gardeners...no black thumbs for Him!  Once God has planted us in His vineyard, how is it that we can grow?
     Psalm 1:1-4 has some answers:  "Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night.  He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither.  In all that he does, he prospers."  Here is a picture of a man who puts the Word of God first in his life.  He does not allow those outside the faith to counsel him.  He does not hang around with bad company.  Instead, he meditates on the truths he reads in the Bible.  He fills his mind and thoughts with wisdom from the Lord.  That is why this man has roots like a tree planted by a stream.  There is a constant water source when we are planted in Christ.  Remember the words of Christ as He spoke to the woman at the well?  "13 Jesus replied, “Everyone who drinks some of this water will be thirsty again. 14 But whoever drinks some of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again, but the water that I will give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up to eternal life.” This is a joyful picture to think that we will not thirst again.  However, there is a condition.
     In John 15:5, Jesus tells us:  "I am the vine; you are the branches; Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing."  The secret to bearing much fruit is to abide in Christ.  We do that through prayer and daily Bible study.  This is our plant food dear friends.  Jesus causes us to grow because we cannot grow on our own.  Just as we could not save ourselves, we also cannot cause fruit to burst forth in our lives without an intimate relationship to our Lord.  What happens if we do not abide in Christ?  He tells us in verse 6 of the same chapter in John:  "If anyone does not abide in Me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire and burned."  These are people who have heard the Word, but have walked away from Christ having never been brought to salvation.  We do not want to live like them for the Lord has planted us to bring glory to His name.  In verse 8 of this chapter, we read:  "By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples."
     My mother had a favorite saying:  "The proof is in the pudding" meaning that when a life bears evidence that we are doing what we say we are going to do we make an impact on those around us.  As we bear fruit, we demonstrate that we have deep roots, well watered and cared for by the Lord.  This is the sign of a healthy life in Christ.  Of course, we must not forget that God will also prune us from time to time removing things in our lives that ought not be there.  It is not pleasant at the moment, but it also helps us to produce better fruit down the road.  As I said, He is the ultimate gardener.
     While I may never be a "green thumb" when it comes to growing plants, I want to be a watered plant bearing much fruit in the house of my God.  Don't you?  The key is seeking Him in His Word and through prayer on a daily basis.  This is the water that will keep us from thirsting again and in dry seasons, our leaves will not wither.  Selah!



Photo compliments of Aaron Thayer at the Naples Botanical Garden.

Biblical Literate or Illiterate?

   

 Last night, my husband and I watched a very good movie entitled "The Book Thief".  The story revolves around a young girl in 1939 Germany who comes to live with foster parents.  She had been taken from her mother who was a communist and had lost her young brother to illness.  Alone in a strange town with parents she does not yet know, she makes friends with a young neighbor boy named Rudy.  When they attend school together, it becomes apparent that she does not know how to read.  Of course, the children make fun of her, but her foster father shows much compassion when he learns about her inability to read.  Together they study words, spelling and read books.  Before long, she is adept at reading.  However, since the Nazis desire to control what is read, they have a huge book burning event to destroy anything not produced by a German or that does not demonstrate the German outlook.  After this event, the young girl steals a smoldering book not consumed by the fire so strong is her desire to read.
     As the story progresses, she is befriended by the burgermeister's wife who allows her to come and read in her library once a week when she delivers laundry her mother has prepared for them.  Without giving all the story away, I will simply say that eventually she becomes a book thief in the burgermeister's home to help a Jewish hideaway by reading to him daily.  The story is full of intrigue, suspense and reveals what WWII looked like inside a German town.  However, there is a larger point here.
     Reading is the gateway to knowledge.  This concept was instilled in me by my parents and teachers all the way through school.  The idea was that if we can read, we can be educated.  Yet, as time goes on, it is becoming clear that within the church, we have fewer and fewer who are knowledgeable about the Bible.
     In an article by Dr. Albert Mohler, "The Scandal of Biblical Illiteracy:  It's Our Problem" (http://www.christianity.com/1270946/), he writes:  "Researchers George Gallup and Jim Castelli put the problem squarely: "Americans revere the Bible--but, by and large, they don't read it. And because they don't read it, they have become a nation of biblical illiterates." How bad is it? Researchers tell us that it's worse than most could imagine."  The article goes on to point out that many cannot name the four Gospels, and 60 percent of Americans cannot name five of the Ten Commandments.  What's worse is the fact that the Bible cannot be brought into the public schools and groups like the A.C.L.U. are fighting to strip any Christian symbols from our nation as well as any expression of our faith including reading the Bible in public places.  We don't expect secular people to know the Bible but we do expect Christians to know their faith.  Dr. Mohler continues:  "Christians who lack biblical knowledge are the products of churches that marginalize biblical knowledge. Bible teaching now often accounts for only a diminishing fraction of the local congregation's time and attention. The move to small group ministry has certainly increased opportunities for fellowship, but many of these groups never get beyond superficial Bible study."  Then he goes on to say this about youth ministry:
"Youth ministries are asked to fix problems, provide entertainment, and keep kids busy. How many local-church youth programs actually produce substantial Bible knowledge in young people?"  So how do we fix these issues and increase biblical literacy?
     First and foremost, it begins in the home.  We are admonished to train up our children in the way they should go (Prov. 22:6).  God expects parents to model and teach the Bible and sound doctrine to their children (Deut. 6:4-9)  A good place to start is with the basic beliefs of the faith as found in the Westminster Catechism.  Have children memorize Bible verses and spend time explaining what they mean.  We cannot lay all the responsibility on the church to do this.
     Secondly, sit under solid preaching of God's Word.  Each week, attend church and go with the intent of taking notes, listening carefully to the preaching, and then, go home and look at the message in light of God's Word.  We must become Bereans (those who listened to Paul preach and then went home to study God's Word to see if it was so...Acts 17:11).
     Another way to become more biblically literate is to join a solid Sunday School class that teaches from God's Word.  Unfortunately, some churches have dropped this time of study, but if the church has a good class, then, we should be there to mine the riches of the Bible together.  In addition, if we belong to a home group, we need to look for material that is based on God's Word and make it a time of deep study...not just a social gathering or fellowship hour.
     Finally (and really this goes without saying), we must be Bible students ourselves.  We need to read the Word daily and study it.  There are many good commentaries out there that we can access online or purchase for our use either on our Kindle or other device.  We live in the information age so we have a good deal at our fingertips.  To further increase our knowledge, we also can sign up for a minimal charge ($9.00 a month) for courses through Ligonier.org ministry.  These are excellent Bible study classes where we can interact with others from around the world online.  It is not unlike a seminary for laymen.
     Whatever we do, we must strive to ensure biblically literate children, youth and adults.  No more should Christians ever think that Sodom and Gomorrah are married or that Noah's wife was Joan of Arc as mentioned in Dr. Mohler's article.  A Christian who does not know or understand God's Word is a sitting duck for false teachers, cults, and any other strange doctrine that comes across their path.  The only way that change begins is with each one of us first, individually and then, in our home at large with our children and grandchildren.  Let us begin to reverse this trend for we know as Hebrews 4:12 says:  "For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart."  We have a powerful, unbeatable weapon in God's Word.  Lets use it!  Selah!